A. Field of Endeavor
The present disclosure is related to packaged consumer goods, and more particularly, to a packaging scheme for identifying particular types of goods within a plurality of goods affiliated with, made and/or sold by a company and/or brand.
B. Background Information
Consumer goods, including the likes of household, personal, sanitary, cleansing and grooming products such as but not limited to batteries, flashlights, gloves, wipes, tampons, sanitary napkins, pads and liners, diapers, incontinence devices, pessaries, razors, shaving preparations, infant and child care goods, pet care and pet waste removal goods, lotions, soaps, sunscreen, and tanning products, are commercially produced and sold to consumers with wrappers and/or in packaging. The package of consumer goods as it is offered to the consumer has a front facing panel which is displayed to a consumer and which includes any number of visual elements in a variety of arrangements to provide distinction between products, product tier levels or even product sub-brands. However, it has been found that many consumers today are confused and overwhelmed at the retail shelf when trying to locate a particular product amongst many different products, even when the products are of a single principal brand. This problem is further complicated by inconsistencies in the packaging schemes for each package. As such, consumers are unable to quickly browse the retail shelf to locate the desired product, the desired product brand, sub-brand, master brand, and/or combinations thereof. For example, package viewing area components, such as the current graphics utilized, the placement of such graphics, the fonts and font sizes of utilized, the colors utilized, and the general arrangements of such components can make sub-brand distinction, tier distinction, product benefits and the ability for a consumer to choose the right product to match a user's need, can make the shopping experience confusing and unclear. In addition, there are many inconsistencies across particular brand lines that do not add any further value to the seller and/or consumer, making the brand even more difficult to shop.
The retail shelf can be a further hindrance to the consumer who is looking not necessarily for a brand, sub-brand and/or master brand, but for the product itself. In packaging schemes where multiple products are offered, it can be difficult for the consumer to pick the right product and not merely a different product having the same branding and/or packaging scheme. Current packaging schemes provide visual information about the product to consumer but fail to tie at least one of a visual cue and a packaging construction cue to the type of product itself.
The retail shelf is further unforgiving to the consumer who is looking to alleviate multiple consumer and/or product needs with a single purchase. Consumers who are looking to purchase sanitary products such as those for personal grooming, incontinence and/or for feminine hygiene often times need more than one type of product (i.e. diapers and wipes, tampons and napkins, razors and pre and/or post shaving preparation, etc. . . . ). Further, a consumer seeking to satisfy one or more needs of more than one person within a single household is faced with the further difficulty of buying multiple different products. As many of these items can be located in different sections and/or organized differently, time, space in the shopping cart, and/or money becomes a limiting factor.
Retail can be further confusing to the consumer traveling amongst different countries and/or regions. Not only are stores organized differently in different regions/countries, different cultures that comprise a majority of a particular region or country can value products and/or attributes of a product that vary from cultures of a different region or country. Further, as some countries, regions and/or local authorities regulate products and/or govern consumer goods differently, packaging and advertising constraints can further limit what information about the product can be conveyed in a particular country or region. As such, packaging schemes amongst these different countries and/or regions will vary in order to flag and direct information that is meaningful to the attributes the consumer of that region values.
Consumers add yet another variable to the retail experience. As some consumers peruse shelves and walk through aisles with products, some consumers will pick-up items to examine them, only to place them back on the shelf such that the typical front facing panel is no longer noticeable and/or the product is placed back on the wrong shelf location.
In an age of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures that are especially prevalent in consumer good companies such as those that manufacture and/or sell personal, grooming and/or sanitary products, the consumer is at risk of not knowing where a favorite brand and/or product went as it is merged and/or discontinued. This is particularly troublesome when two products that directly compete and/or compete in adjacencies become one organization. This concerning scenario is contrasted with an equally distressing consequence of mergers and acquisitions: how does a company communicate to the consumer that despite a different brand and/or sub-brand, the products are made/sold by the same parent company? Communicating this is delicate as certain consumers find comfort in this information, while other consumers would prefer to keep a brand and/or product isolated from other affiliated brands and/or products.
As technology has progressed and online retail has increased via computers (i.e. laptops, desk tops), tablets, notebooks and smart devices such as phones, PDA's, etc. . . . ), it is becoming increasingly important for consumers to be able to browse an electronic or digital retail shelf such as a webpage and being able to quickly determine what brand and/or what product something is by a somewhat small photograph and/or caption. While some websites, mobile sites and/or apps provide filtering means, not all websites a particular consumer good is advertised and/or sold on provide sufficient filtering means to actually narrow results to the product sought. Further, even if filtering has been successful, the consumer still needs to be able to quickly identify the brand and/or product from a somewhat small photograph of the product packaging.
Thus, there is a need for a packaging scheme that equips a consumer with the ability to quickly browse the retail shelf to locate one or more desired products. There is also a need for a packaging scheme amongst a company and/or principal brand distinguishing products, brands, sub-brands and/or product tiers. There is a further need for a system that equips a consumer with the ability to choose the right product to match one or more user's need(s) such as specific personal attributes, development stage(s), and/or level of symptoms. There is also a further need for a system that more clearly conveys the benefits of the products disposed within a corresponding package. There is a further need for a consumer goods packaging scheme that reduces the number of variables that can lead to a delayed and/or frustrating consumer purchasing experience. Further still, there is a need for a consumer goods packaging scheme that improves the consumer's ability to purchase necessary consumer goods by reducing the number and/or magnitude of limiting factors that affect the consumer's purchasing decisions. There is yet a further need for a consumer goods packaging scheme that enables particular global regions to tout product information in a way that is meaningful to its key consumer groups while also enabling the international consumer to find the product the consumer desires. Further still, another need exists for providing multiple products to a consumer in a single package. There is a further need to provide a packaging scheme having at least two products in a single package, where each individual product has at least one of a visual cue and packaging construction cue, where both product's schemes are on their respective individual packages and also the combination package.
Accordingly, there is a need for a packaging scheme and methods related thereto that overcome, alleviate, and/or mitigate one or more of the aforementioned deficiencies of prior art wrappers.